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Proportional Representation Society of Australia

The Proportional Representation Society of Australia (PRSA) is one of Australia's oldest electoral reform organisations, with roots in the 19th century — Catherine Helen Spence was among its founding members. The current national constitution dates from 1982.

The Society's specific focus is proportional representation via the Single Transferable Vote (PR-STV), the Hare-Clark variant of which is used in Tasmania and the ACT. It advocates for extending this system to the House of Representatives (currently using preferential voting in single-member electorates) and to state lower houses.

What they argue

PR-STV produces results that more closely reflect the distribution of voter preferences across the electorate, reducing the "wasted votes" problem of single-member systems. The Society makes regular submissions to parliamentary inquiries on electoral matters and publishes a quarterly newsletter, Quota Notes.

PR-STV is distinct from party-list proportional representation (used in most of Europe) in that voters rank individual candidates rather than selecting parties — preserving a direct relationship between voters and representatives while achieving proportionality.